Prisoners' release to be priority issue at meeting of Normandy Four's FMs - Poroshenko
KYIV. June 8 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced that the release of convicted Ukrainian citizens will be one of the priorities at a meeting of the Normandy Four countries' foreign ministers, the Ukrainian presidential website said.
"[Ukrainian Foreign Minister] Pavlo [Klimkin] is heading to a meeting of the Normandy format countries' foreign ministers on June 11. Apart from the deployment of a peacekeeping mission, the ceasefire and the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, the first issue is hostages. We have already agreed and coordinated our stance, the French and German sides support us," Poroshenko said at a meeting with families of Ukrainian citizens detained in Russia and territories outside Kyiv's control.
Iryna Herashchenko, the Ukrainian presidential representative for the peaceful settlement of the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, at a meeting of Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, officially handed over the letter containing the list of 23 Russians, who, according to Kyiv, were engaged in espionage in Ukraine, to be swapped for Ukrainian prisoners, he said.
As reported, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Normandy Four countries will take place in Berlin on June 11.
The Normandy Four on the settlement of the situation in Donbas comprises Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine.